Aging increases breast cancer risk while an early first pregnancy reduces a woman's life-long risk. Several studies have explored the effect of either aging or pregnancy on mammary stem/progenitor cells, however, the combined effect of both remains unclear. Here, we interrogate the functional and transcriptomic changes at single-cell resolution in the mammary gland of aged nulliparous and parous mice to discover that pregnancy normalizes age-related imbalances in lineage composition, while also inducing a differentiated cell state. Importantly, we uncover a minority population of Il33-expressing epithelial cells that express both luminal and basal markers (i.e. hybrid), which accumulate in aged nulliparous mice but are significantly reduced in aged parous mice. Functionally, IL33 treatment of mammary epithelial cells from young mice phenocopies aged nulliparous epithelial cells, induces proliferation and promotes formation of organoids with Trp53 knockdown. Collectively, our study demonstrates that pregnancy blocks the age-associated imbalances in lineage integrity in the basal layer, including a decrease in Il33+ hybrid cells, that could potentially contribute to pregnancy-induced breast cancer protection.
Olander et al. (2026) studied this question.